Reasons for Exploration

After 66 days of sailing, an Italian Sailor (and crew) commissioned by Queen Isabella of Spain – landed on a

small Caribbean island October 12, 1492.

Impact of Columbus EncounterColumbus believed he had achieved his mission to reach Asia. Quickly, Europeans learned it was not Asia but an unknown continent filled with people they never imagined. This led to power and wealth for Europeans as well as the creation of new Ethnic groups as children were born to American Indian/European Couples

Fifteenth Century is Turning Point1. Changing ideas on geography—Crusades revealed what Asia had to offer—Clothes, silks, jewels, spices, etc.—Missionaries sent.

Marco Polo’s 14th-century explorations.

1411, Ptolemy wrote Geography—Greatly affects European exploration.

2. Technological Advancements

Better understanding of location using quadrants and shooting position by the stars.

Mariners’ Compass.

More efficient ships.

The Printing Press!

Fifteenth Century is Turning Point

3. Social Changes

Population explosion after the Black Death.

New learning—more intellectual minds.

4. Rise of Modern Nation States

Feudalism declined and replaced with absolute monarchs who used armies for conquest.

Henry VII of England, Louis XI of France, Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain—Competition leads to Exploration!

5. The Reformation

Henry VIII’s divorce from Catherine (Spanish) causes hostilities—Creates rivalry for the Americas to be Catholic or Protestant.

Fifteenth Century is Turning Point

6. Changing Economic System—Rise of the middle merchant (trading) class that has money to invest.

Economic individualism and the beginnings of capitalist thought.

Enclosure Movement—Property owners begin to enclose fields with beginnings of sheep being farmed for wool—Peasants displaced—Motivation to move to America.

7. Glory, God and Gold becomes the rally cry of explorers.

Europeans Search for Trade Routes• Ottoman Empire heavily

taxed/controlled overland trade routes to Far East-- Europeans want a water route (Portuguese already control African route)

-- Not 1st European to set foot on “New World” => Leif Erickson & Vikings had founded a settlement in New Foundland ~1020

The Great Food and Disease Migration: The Columbian Exchange

• New foods exchanged between the Old and New Worlds altered the fates of nations and strengthened a growing sense of identity.

Potato “took root” in Ireland—But depending on it as a staple led to the devastating Potato Famine in the 1840—More than a million Irish died due to the blight and another million migrated to the U.S.

• As foods spread around the world, the ingredients of dishes came to be one of the pillars of national identity.

Corn Potato Tomato Peppers Chocolate Vanilla Tobacco Beans Pumpkin Avocado Peanut Pecan

Cashew Pineapple Blueberry Sunflower Petunia Black-Eyed-Susan

Dahlia Marigold Wild Rice

New WorldHorse Cattle Pig Sheep Chicken Honeybee Wheat Asian-Rice Barley Oats Soy Sugar-

Cane Onion Lettuce Okra Peach Pear Watermelon Citrus-Fruit Banana Olive Lilac

Daffodil Tulip Daisy Dandelion Crab Gras

Old World

The Great Food and Disease Migration: The Columbian Exchange

Disease became the greatest weapon of the Europeans—Within decades, most native peoples became victims mostly of small pox and measles.

By domesticating pigs, horses, sheep and cattle, Europeans had infected themselves with many pathogens that had become plagues and created immunities.

Mostly, the Disease Migration was a one-way affair—Except for a new strain of syphilis that mastered venereal transmission in the Americas.

The Story of AIDS today is similar—It presumably haunted isolated communities for hundreds of years, unleashed by contact through improved transportation and new population migrations.

The Disease Migration even helped to fuel the Development of African slavery.

Columbus and European Contact• Spanish are cruel to “Indians” they

encounter and force them to mine for gold and serve as slaves

• “They should be good and intelligent servants, for I see that they say very quickly everything that is said to them.” Columbus

• European diseases and brutality kills ~ 90% of the Native population within 75 years of European arrival!

• Largest Genocide in world history!** Why is this not discussed more??**

• Images of Native Americans by Early Europeans – What does each picture show? How does it portray Natives? Which is more accurate? Why?

Map of Columbus’s 4 Voyages

How Tupi Indians Roasted their Meat (ca 1550)

Theodore De Bry – Preparing a Feast (1590)

Creating the “American Identity”• What is an American? What “makes” you “American”? How do we define this today and

what does it mean for us and our society?• What were Immigrants coming to America looking for/seeking?

#1: NO intentions of developing a new civilization or country#2: Wanted to escape Religious Persecution – NOT for ‘Freedom of religion’#3: “Headright System” – each colonists who pays for passage to ‘New World’ receives 50 acre land grant (rich gained massive amount of land by paying for passage of indentured servants) => Land = measure of wealth in Europe#4: Hoped for a better life economically#5: Religious enthusiasm led some to brave journey#6: Desire for change and escape from European society#7: Some disillusioned w/ European class system